Pages

I am 28. White. A Female. And a former Peace Corps Volunteer. I am HIV Positive. This is my story of how a few months, a few people, and a few events in Zambia changed me and my life forever. This is the story of how I contracted HIV and brought my Peace Corps Journey to a crashing halt... and how I am working now to pick up and put back together the pieces of my life as a newly diagnosed person living with HIV. This was not the journey I had originally planned... my path has traumatically and dramatically changed... but it is the one I am on now. There is no going back. There is only forward. I welcome you to follow along with me as I attempt to explore this new life ahead of me, whether you are someone from the Peace Corps community, or someone living with HIV. I welcome your comments, questions, suggestions, and opinions. Let us go forward together. To start from the beginning, click here He Gave Me More Than A Bracelet.

3 comments:

These statistics anger but don't surprise me. Are parents leaving it up to the schools or WHAT?! Our society is messed up concerning sexuality, there is all this stigma attached to talking about sex, to the detriment of our young people. Why do we neglect to educate our children, and then wonder why at the magical age of 18 they have no knowledge?

My Mom is an Ob/Gyn, so fortunately I was a part of the 10%, and sadly she was the "go to" for all of my female friends. It would surprise her that they would turn to HER with a problem before their own mother, doctor or not.

I'm part of the 10%, and I find it rather sad that parents are not educating their children. I don't think I remember all that much about sex education in school, so parents who are waiting on the schools to handle it really need to be a bit more realistic, and also need to be aware that kids are sexually active earlier and earlier.

This is an interesting question! I personally think that if you were to ask this say 15-20 years down the road, the results will be different. My parents are currently in their 50s, and they didn't grow up in a society where talking about intercourse with children, or even with friends, was accepted and much less encouraged. Because of that, they never really spoke to me about this. The furthest they got was with my mom talking about birth control. Whenever I tried to broach the subject, I could tell that they go very uncomfortable, and would quickly change the subject to something else.

Conversely, I grew up all through the 90s with much more freedom of expression allowed around me. My friends and I talked about sex so much that looking back now I blush at the stuff that we freely discussed. Also, having lived through the stuff that I went through, and having seen some more of the things that happened around me, I would never dreams of not educating my children about the dangers of sex, STDs, alcohol, drugs, etc. I remember when I said this to my parents, they were shocked!

I think that most of my generation has been given the opportunity to grow up in such an open society that we expect certain thing not only from those around us, but from ourselves.

Project Hopeful

Positively Adopted

Disclaimer

The contents of this website are mine personally and do not reflect any position of the United States Government or the United States Peace Corps.
Any medical opinions or information contained on this website come solely from my personal experience and/or research, and should not be taken as absolute fact or as qualified medical advice.